IARU HF World Championship
Call: KT1V
Operator(s): KT1V
Station: KT1V
Class: SO CW HP
QTH: NH
Operating Time (hrs): 24
Radios: SO2R
Summary:
Band CW Qs Ph Qs Mults
---------------------------
160: 5 5
80: 54 28
40: 329 46
20: 976 65
15: 697 54
10: 15 10
---------------------------
Total: 2076 0 208 Total Score = 1,782,560
Club: Yankee Clipper Contest Club
Comments:
KT1V SO HP CW only
BAND QSO QSO-PTS PTS/Q ZONES HQ STNS
160 5 11 2.20 4 1
80 54 152 2.81 9 19
40 329 1215 3.69 24 22
20 976 4170 4.27 35 30
15 697 2971 4.26 28 26
10 15 51 3.40 6 4
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Totals 2076 8570 4.13 106 102
Score: 1,782,560 points
IARU has long been one of my favorite contests by far, and I?ve also done pretty
well the last couple of years for myself. One reason may be that with summer
conditions, aluminum matters more then in most other tests ? and I?ve got more
aluminum right now than skill (errr, make that ?experience?).
I had been fighting a nasty RF problem and fixed it the week before, after maybe
50 hours of effort, and had gotten my Array Solutions SO2R box working
flawlessly with CT. Had done everything I wanted except run a feedline to the
4/4 South stack for 15m, even though I spent a few hours on towers the Friday
before the contest (as I always seem to J ).
I don?t start contests well, don?t know why but just don?t. 15m sigs were weak,
20m sounded better, and I flip flopped on which band to start on. Finally
decided (30 seconds before 1200z) to go with 15m. It took me almost 3 minutes to
make my first Q! Anyways, the first two hours were good on 15m, with rates of
126 and 139. I even made a second radio Q in the first few minutes on 20 to make
sure everything still worked, until settling down on concentrating on rate on
the first radio.
The 3rd and 4th hours slowed down with rates of 102 each, and I started on the
second radio Qs ? everything worked FB the first 30 minutes or so, and I was
picking off mults on 10 and 20. Then IT happened ? my transmitting CW in the
headphones sounded like real crap ? all fuzzy and like RF was getting into the
audio somehow. It quickly got worse and was making a relay in the SO2R box go
haywire. Found out I couldn?t use automatic mode anymore (auto audio switching
to radio 2 while radio 1 transmits) for fear I would blow up something in the
SO2R box. Radio 2 Qs had to be sent by hand now, not computer, but were free of
that horrible RF crapola, unlike from radio 1. I thought about K3ZO who sends
all CW by hand ? wish I could have done that but it would have affected my
performance negatively.
Turned the prop pitch from 45 to 65 degrees and the interference got better,
turned it back and it got worse. Finally figured out that the direction didn?t
matter, just the last direction it had turned in! Somewhere mid hour 5 or so I
realized that if I switched radios ? ran on what was my traditional 2nd radio
and S&Ped on my traditional run radio the interference was gone ? 95% of the
time.
At 1700-1730z I abandoned SO2R to do a sweep of 15m for mults and picked up a
lot of easy ones I might have missed otherwise. stayed on 15m until 1830 when I
made the move to 14007 and ran at 70 and 80 rates with a few 2nd radio Qs on 15
and 10. During the 2200 hour ran about 25 minutes on 15m so I could do some 2nd
radio mult hunting on 20m with limited results, and decided the 20m mults could
wait. 20 wasn?t probably going to close like 15m. I started running on 20m again
while multing 40m.
At 0030 I started CQing on 7006, and was immediately called by an OJ. It took
about 10 minutes to really get a good run going, and it was a really good run. I
was trying to mult 80m, which was on the marginal side, but the callers on 40
were being pests J I?d up the speed to 38wpm, bump the 10Q rate to 150+ and work
down the pile, and start S&Ping 80 again. I had plans for a great 80m mult total
as its one of the strengths of the station. But callers would start on 40 again
? not one or two but many at once. I started using the beverage as 40m was quite
noisy. Finally at 0200 I PANICKED and abandoned 40m for 80 ? this was my BIGGEST
MISTAKE of the test. I should have ran another hour plus on 40 and then went to
80. 80 got much better as time went on, from downright crappy to almost
marginal, which is OK in W1 with a 4-sq and beverages. I remember struggling
trying to work YT0HQ who couldn?t quite pull me out, and then 1.5 hours later he
was 20db louder and an easy Q/mult. Part of my panic was influenced by my being
way behind in mults from last year, maybe 20-30, but being ahead well over
100Qs.
At 0240 I was CQing on 7002 for about 90 minutes while multing 80m, but the
rates on 40 were not as good as those I had left a while ago.
Moved to 14004 at 0420 and lived there most of the rest of the contest while
working the second radio hard on 40/80 and occasionally 160 which was not in
good shape.
The last two hours were very tough ? I wanted to fall asleep very badly. 20 was
really the only game in town although I did manage the very occasional 15m 2nd
radio Q. The last 30 minutes were eventful as I started S&Ping 20 and picked up
a bunch of very much needed mults!
Overall, I worked exactly the same number of mults as last year, 208, and 2077
Qs, up about 170 from last year. Score increased about 12 %, and since condx
seemed down that?s pretty good (then again I?ve added more than 12% in antennas
since last year).
Some very big scores ? congrats to W1KM and W4PA and many others. Looking
forward to next year already,
73
Ted KT1V ex KR1G
Posted using 3830 Score Submittal Forms at: http://www.hornucopia.com/3830score/
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